E 
i874 



PROTECTION TO AMERICAN CITIZENS ABROAD-GERMANS 
AND IRISH-PARTIES AND PLATFORMS. 



But if we consider the variety and magnitude of foreign elements to which we 
have been hospitable, and their ready fusion with the earlier stocks, we have new 
evidence of strength and vivid force in our population, which we may not refuse to 
admire. The disposition and the capacity thus shown give warrant of a powerful 
society. "All nations," says Lord Bacon, "that are liberal of naturalization are 
fit for empire." — William M. Evarts's Centennial Oration. 



SPEECH 



OP 



Hi. 



HON. SAMUEL S. COX, 

OF NEW YORK, 

IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ' 

SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1876. 



WASHINGTON 

1876. 







Glass EJl73_ 



Book_ l Cl24L 



/ o 



PROTECTION TO AMERICAN CITIZENS ABROAD-GERMANS 
AND IRISH-PARTIES AND PLATFORMS. 



But if we consider the variety and magnitude of foreign elements to which we 
have been hospitable, and their ready fusion with the earlier stocks, we have new 
evidence of strength and vivid force in our population, which we may not refuse to 
admire. The disposition and the capacity thus shown give warrant of a powerful 
society. "All nations, " says Lord Bacon, "that are liberal of naturalization are 
tit for empire."— William M. Evarts's Centennial Oration. 



SPEECH 



OF 










HON. SAMUEL S. COX, 

OF NEW YORK, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1876. 



WASHING-TON 

1876. 






MODIFICATION OF TKEATIE8. 



This republican platform has the effrontery to call for a modifica- 
tion of existing treaties with foreign governments. Why ¥ In order 
that the same protection shall be afforded to the adopted citizen that 
is given to the native born ; that all necessary laws should be passed 
to protect emigrants in the absence of power in the States for that 
purpose ! 

Never in the history of political parties was there so gross an insult 
to ordinary intelligence as this platform. This I will proceed to show. 
What treaties are referred to in it ? Is it the treaty with Great Britain 
or the treaty with the German Confederation ? If it is the treaty with 
Great Britain, the credit, if any, confessedly does not belong to the 
present administration ; and if it did, that treaty needs no modifica- 
tion unless republican zealots desire to make it conform to the out- 
rageous treaty made by George Bancroft with the German Emperor in 
1868. The British treaty was celebrated in the administration of An- 
drew Johnson. Then our Secretary of State instructed Reverdy John- 
son, our minister to England, on the 23d of September, 18G8, to place this 
matter of protection or allegiance above all others in importance. He 
ordered it to be considered before any other diplomatic question. The 
San Juan boundary and the Alabama claims questions, then pending, 
were to be held in abeyance until " the naturalization question should 
be satisfactorily settled by treaty or by law of Parliament." The Amer- 
ican principle, once advocated by Cass, Marcy, and other democratic 
statesmen, was then and thus laid down by the administration of 
Johnson : 

The principles to be settled are, that it is the right of every human being "who 
is neither convicted nor accused of crime to renounce his home and native allegiance 
and seek a new home and transfer his allegiance to any other nation that he may 
choose; and that, having made and perfected his choice in good faith, and still ad- 
hering to it in good faith, he shall be entitled from his new sovereign to the same pro- 
tection, under the law of nations, that that sovereign lawfully extends to his native 
subjects or citizens. 

Our minister to England followed these instructions, and the result 
appears in the first article of the protocol, which is as follow»: 

Such citizens as aforesaid, of the United States, who have become, or shall be- 
come, and are naturalized according to law within the British dominions as British 
subjects, shall, subject to the provisions of articles 2 and t, be held by the United 
States to be, in all respects and for all pui-poses, British subjects, and shall be 
treated as such by the United States. Reciprocally such British subjects as afore- 
said who have become, or shall become, and are naturalized according to law within 
the United States of America as citizens thereof, shall, subject to the provisions of 
articles 2 and 4, be held by Great Britain to be, in all respects and for all purposes, 
American citizens, and shall be treated as such by Great Britain. 

Mr. Johnson subsequently, in reviewing the negotiations he had 
conducted in London, thus disposes of the matter of naturalization : 

The English doctrine is so wholly unfounded in reason that his lordship did 
not hesitate to abandon it. Growing out of a feudal policy, it is uusuited to the 
rights of a free people. It assumes that allegiance is due to the soil upon which 
a man is born. It makes him therefore a political serf, and denies to him the power 
to change for the better his condition. No free people can consent to such a doc- 
trine, and notwithstanding the uniform decisions of Her Majesty's courts, hoary 
with age, and never for a moment questioned by any judicial decision, even up to 
the moment when our protocol was signed, it fell at once before the light of British 
and American freedom. 

To Andrew Johnson and Reverdy Johnson is due the merit which 
belongs to this recognition of the protection which our Government 
owes to a citizen who has fixed his fortune with us and contributed 
to the development of our greatness. They held aloft the idea that 



lie should not against bis will, forfeit the protection of our Govern- 
ment; so that this treaty, which is a triumph of democratic policy, 
needs no " modification " and is its own best encomium. Does the 
republican platform propose to modify it ? 

GERMAN TREATY. 

Mr. Speaker, I presume the republican platform which I have quoted 
did not contemplate this treaty. Perhaps it referred to the very ex- 
traordinary treaty of Bancroft made under the republican administra- 
tion of General Grant. By that treaty the doctrine that a naturalized 
citizen is entitled under the law of nations to the same protection that 
a native subject is, Avas shamelessly abandoned. A German natural- 
ized citizen is thereby remanded to the authority of his fatherland if 
he should return there and remain beyond a period of two years. This 
treaty expires next year; but every moment that it remains it is a 
national disparagement and disgrace. Under its provisions already 
a German-American citizen, Steinkauler, has been placed in the Prus- 
sian army and deprived of our protection. 

Not ouce nor twice, but thrice, have the President and his Secretary 
of State asked Congress for legislation to carry out this un-American 
treaty. The bill now before the House, to which I am speakiug, is 
one of this character. It is almost a copy of the bill of Hon. E. R. 
Hoar of the last two Congresses. That bill I have had the pleasure 
and the honor thus far to assist in defeating. Whenever it is called 
up in this House it will be promptly tabled. Of that I am assured. 
It should be called a bill to " denaturalize" our citizens, to " discour- 
age" immigration. The distinguished editor of the Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung wrote to me in April, 1874, and thus describes a similar bill 
and pictures some of its results : 

Upon the subject of the denaturalization bill which, in your speech of April 22, 
you have opposed, I have written quite a lengthy letter to Mr. Orth, of Indiana, 
and I wish you would read that letter if Mr. Orth should not have destroyed it. 
There are a few points in it which, in my opinion, have not yet been as thoroughly 
ventilated as they should be. One is that, by the Bancroft treaties, a naturalized 
citizen residing in his native country two years may be considered as having re- 
linquished his American citizenship. When this treaty was before the then North 
German Diet, Bismarck stated expressly that the German government did not in- 
tend to make use of this provision except in such cases where mala fide emigra- 
tion (for the purpose of evading military service) was clearly proven. But by the 
present bill the United States would actually cast out of their citizenship all natu- 
ralized citizens who should reside two years in their native country, thus out-Bis- 
marcking Bismarck considerably. 

The other point is that in regard to alien women marrying American citzens and 
thereby becoming American citizens themselves except as to the country of their 
birth. That provision, in spite of all Mr. Hoar says in its defense, is a brutal and 
stupid outrage upon all marriage legislation of all civilized countries. According 
to it, if my wife, after having become the mother of half a dozen native Americans, 
should, as a widow, live ("continue to live") with her relations in Germany, she 
would lose her American citizenship after having lost her German one by marry- 
ing; me; would, in fact, be an outcast. 

The title of the bill should read: "A bill to declare all naturalized citizens citi- 
zens on sufferance, to make them hate the United States as their stepmother country, 
and to repudiate the pledges given by the Republic to her naturalized citizens." 
Yours, respectfully, 

HEEMASra' EASTEE. 

Since the treaty expires on the 19th of November, 1878, it may not 
be necessary to carry out the very tardy and dishonest suggestion of 
the republican platform to " modify" it for the protection of adopted 
American citizens. But, in the language of the democratic platform, 
"reform is necessary to correct these errors which have stripped our 
fellow-citizens of foreign birth of the shield of American citizenship." 
The advent of a democratic administration will allow no diplomacy 



which thus discards the liberty-loving German from partnership in 
our franchises and prosperities. We can illy afford to pursue any 
policy which would close our ports to emigration from an empire 
which has 43,000,000 of thrifty people. 

I have already, Mr. Speaker, on the 22d of April last, given my 
reasons against the attempt to make laws here to execute this un- 
American policy and treaty; but the importance of the question in 
connection with our presidential campaign and the platforms of our 
parties constrain mo as the representative of a district containing a 
large majority of people, foreign-born or of foreign descent, and in- 
cluding some :50,000 German people, to add other suggestions against 
this proposed legislation. 

THE OKIGIN OF THIS rUOSClUTTIVE, AXTI-GEKM.VX LEGISLATION. 

What is the source of this prescriptive legislation against our nat- 
uralization? It began with our Executive, his Secretary of State, and 
Mr. Bancroft, minister to Berlin. 

The President of the United States in his last annual message to Con- 
gress speaks of persons " who, if they have remained in this country 
long enough to entitle them to be naturalized, have generally not 
much overpassed that period, and have returned to the country of 
their origin, where they reside, avoiding all duties to the United 
States by their absence, and claiming to be exempt from all duties to 
the country of their nativity and of their residence by reason of their 
alleged naturalization." 

FEUDAL AND "FEDEKAL" D0CTMXES. 

The doctrine underlying this paragraph of the message is abhorrent 
to every thinking man of republican feelings. It is essentially the 
old feudal doctrine of a government represented in the person of the 
monarch having all the rights, and the subject being the bounden 
servant, on whom are heaped all the duties. It is essentially the old 
feudal doctrine that no subject can go from the country where he is 
without the consent of his master, the government. It is essentially 
the old feudal doctrine that man is created solely to pay taxes and 
carry the lance or musket in the service of his owner, the government. 
It should bring the blush of shame to the face of every true American 
to hear the President of the Kepublic in this centennial year discuss- 
ing the question of citizenship from the stand-point of an absolute 
king. Nay, the relations of the citizen of the United States, whether 
native or naturalized, to the Government of his country are of a 
wholly different character than what the President seems to assume. 
The Government of this country is in the people thereof, under the 
Constitution, and every citizen, at home and abroad, is an integral 
part of that Government. The President of the United States, the 
heads of the various Departments, the Senate, the House of Eepre- 
sentatives, are only the servants of the people to execute their 
will. No citizen of the United States owes any higher duty to the 
Government than he owes to himself. He is personally a part of that 
Government; even the man who defrauds the revenue only defrauds 
himself and his fellow-citizens in the end. It is logically said in po- 
litical economy that the wealth of a nation is composed of the wealth 
of individuals. Fully to the same extent does republican government 
rest upon the republican spirit of the citizens who compose, maintain, 
and direct it, and who really constitute the Government by sending 
us here to take care of — what ? Of the rights of the Government as 
a distiuct, separate entity? No; but of the rights and interests of 
the people, of the aggregate of those who enjoy the proud name of 
citizens of the United States, wherever they may be on the face of 
the earth. 



OUR CITIZENS AliKOAD AND THEIK RELATION. 

An alien, becoming a citizen of this Republic according to its laws 
and by the adjudgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, does not 
by going abroad, no matter where, avoid any duties to the United 
States. He may not pay taxes nor serve in the Army ; but there are 
millions upou millions in the country who pay no taxes nor enter the 
Army, some not even in the militia ; yet they are good, faithful citi- 
zens. Their will must find expression here'. Hut the men who, on 
being naturalized, return to their original home, claiming to' be 
American citizens under the protection of the American Republic— 
and it is this class about which so much clamor has been raised— may 
be divided into two categories: one honestly attached to republican 
principles, the other not, but seeking fraudulently the cover of Ameri- 
can citizenship to escape some hardships in their native country. As 
to the latter class, there is a plain legal course open. Any person 
claiming the protection of American diplomatic or consular represent- 
atives as a naturalized citizen must, as a universal rule, exhibit an 
exemplified copy of the decree of the court adjudging him a citizen 
under the signature and seal of the clerk or prothonotary. If the 
document be fraudulent on its face or circumstances indicate that 
fraud had been committed in obtaining it, information to the State 
Department should at once set in motion the United States attorney 
for the district where the decree was procured to apply to the same 
court to have it canceled. The rules of practice, as every lawyer 
knows, authorize every court to make the required orders for the serv- 
ice of motion-papers and for taking proof. A single case of the re- 
scission of a decree of naturalization obtained by fraud, either abso- 
lute or proven such by subsequent circumstances, would suffice to 
relieve our representatives abroad of all further trouble. 

But those who become bona fide citizens, who as the act of 1802 re- 
quires, " absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure allegiance and 
fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty what- 
ever, and particularly, by name, the prince, potentate, state, or sov- 
ereignty whereof he was before a citizen or subject," and who also 
makes oath that he is " attached to the principles of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States and well disposed to the good order and 
happiness of the same "—when such a naturalized citizen goes abroad 
even to the country of his birth, we should look upon him as a mis- 
sionary of republicanism. To the return of thousands of just such 
men and their more or less protracted residence at the home of their 
youth, proclaiming themselves in all places and at all times as citizens 
of this Republic, and in their own persons bearing testimony to the 
ennobling influences of the democratic system— to such men and to 
their missionary labors we owe many millions of our most thrifty pop- 
ulation. Besides, do we not owe them a large share of our miracu- 
lous growth ? They serve their adopted country well, far better than 
those who, after accumulating wealth here, go abroad, resume their 
first allegiance, and become the lick-spittles of aristocracy, or those 
who born here, and having wealth, go abroad to show everything 
else but American manners and principles, and who deride and de- 
fame this country beyond measure. 

But the naturalized citizen who proves his attachment and fidelity 
to the United States not only by taking the oath in good faith, but 
by holding his citizenship dear while abroad, is doing, instead of 
avoiding, his full duty to the United States, and such men should 
and must be protected at all hazards. 



THE AMERICAN DOCTRIXE. 



In this respect the course of the State Department lias been distin 
guisned by too much anxiety for technicalities. I disclaim all design 



of being invidious or personal in this remark ; but the fact is, never- 
theless, that those in authority allowed themselves to be overmuch 
beclouded by the old English common law on the question; what 
Vattel said, and Puffendorf, and Grotius, and other European wri- 
ters on international law, and what the obiter dicta had been in 
some of our courts. Never for a moment was the thought, enter- 
tained of late, that as the American Revolution upset all the old 
European notions of government, so did it also, in its successful 
course, establish a new American common law regarding allegiance, 
expatriation, and naturalization. The United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have recog- 
nized substantially the American doctrine enunciated by General 
Cass ; and if we only persist, all the nations on the globe will do it 
also. The German Empire is striving hard to prevent it, and the 
treaty of 1868 Avas but a means to that end. If fears that by obey- 
ing the treaty of 1828, insuring freedom of residence and security 
and protection to all American citizens alike, the missionary labors of 
Americans of German birth would draw hither too many emigrants 
from that country. A friend has shown me a letter from Bremen, 
dated December 20 last, which says that peremptory orders are said 
to have been issued by the minister of commerce at Berlin to all 
the local agents of transatlantic steamship companies in Germany, 
that they must, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, give no in- 
formation about America to any inquirer, but confine themselves to 
give only the price of passage, names of vessels, and dates of depart- 
ure. From this, if true, it would seem that America is a forbidden 
theme, and that even to talk about us in the United States is a pun- 
ishable offense in Germany. All the greater, therefore, is the reason 
why we should retaliate by insisting upon the full observance of the 
treaty of 1828, and demanding that a native German, legally natu- 
ralized here by a court of competent jurisdiction, returning to Ger- 
many, returns as an American citizen and in no other character, and 
remaius such until he shall have voluntarily assumed a new alle- 
giance. This is the American common law, and should be resolutely 
maintained not only in respect to Germany, but all nations of Eu- 
rope. England and Austria have virtually adopted it, and other gov- 
ernments will follow in time. America was the first to proclaim the 
principle that free ships make free goods, and by the treaty of Paris 
of 1856 all Europe accepted it. So will the American doctrine of al- 
legiance, expatriation, and naturalization be accepted if the repre- 
sentatives of the American people ar-e faithful to their duty. Then 
we shall see free American colonies springing up everywhere and 
dotting every country on the face of the globe, reverencing the flag- 
that shields and protects them, and bearing witness to the world in a 
thousand tongues, that to be an American is to be truly a free man ! 
There is, however, one fundamental objection to the principle which 
underlies this bill and the argument in its favor. The United States 
have neither the right nor the power to prescribe where any of their 
citizens shall reside. If the free movement of the citizen to go where 
he listed can be restricted in one case it may be restricted in all, and lie 
would then hold his citizenship and his* personal liberty and inde- 
pendence at the mere pleasure or caprice of a government that would 
cease to be republican. It would be to resuscitate the old feudal 
doctrine of the subject bound to the service of his master, the king; 
precisely what the German government claims and what the United 
States have so long and so strenuously resisted. 



STEIXKAULER CASE. 



The report upon which this bill is predicated, in its opening para- 
graphs, says that; " the natural right of emigration affirmed by that 
treaty, with all the consequences of acknowledging that right, have 
been fully recognized," and toward the close it is again said that 
" this treaty recognizes the full right of a German subject to renounce 
his allegiance to the land of his birth, and through our naturalization 
laws to acquire a new nationality in the United States." This is 
true, but only in a very qualified sense, as has been seen in the case 
of young Steinkauler, whose birth on American soil as the son of an 
American citizen did not save him from being held as a German sub- 
ject liable to military duty in spite of the protest of his father, who 
claimed for him protection by right of his American citizenship. 
This recognition on the part of Germany of the natural right of em- 
igration and expatriation resolves itself into this : As long as a native 
German, naturalized in the United States, remains away from his 
native laud and beyond the power of its authorities, he is looked upon 
as an American citizen, and his nationality and protection graciously 
surrendered to the United States ; but the moment he touches Ger- 
man soil his original character revives, and thereafter he holds his 
naturalized citizenship dependent oil the good-will of the German 
government. That, in a general way, is the kind of recognition which 
this treaty has secured from Germauy for the principle which Amer- 
ica has so long maintained, and for which recognition we are re- 
quested to be so thankful. 

PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE GERMAN" TREATY. 

A few words as to the practical working of the treaty in relation 
to the thousands of German-Americans who annually visit their old 
country for weeks or months and return to the United States with- 
out being molested. In his letter to the State Department of June 
30, 1874, Mr. Bancroft states their number at " from 10,000 to 15,000" 
who " come yearly to their mother country now, without suffering the 
least anxiety, where before many of them, in order to see their friends, 
were obliged to remain on the other side of the frontier or come into 
Germany stealthily, running the risk of arrest every hour." This 
may be so ; but if it proves anything, it only shows that the German 
or rather the Prussian government has not lived up to its obligations 
under the treaty of 1828, which insured protection and security to all 
American citizens sojourning in Prussian dominions, and made no 
distinction as to the country of their nativity. 

I am aware, Mr. Speaker, that international law does not relieve 
an emigrant from the consequences of an offense committed in the 
land of his birth prior to emigration, when he returns there, after 
being naturalized in another country; and I know, also, that under 
Prussian law since 1814, and re-enacted in the penal codes of 1842 and 
1851, emigration without permission of the government was an offense 
punishable witb hue and imprisonment, and subjecting the emigrant 
to military service at whatever age he may have returned. If the 
United States are prepared to accept this doctrine of Prussia as valid, 
then the treaty of 1868 may be defended as a slight concession. But 
I claim that this country has emancipated itself from this rule of 
feudalism, and has announced and should maintain the truly Ameri- 
can principle of international law as to the indefeasible right of emi- 
gration and expatriation. That doctrine is, no man can be bound iu 
any service to a government whose citizen or subject he has ceased 
to be by voluntary naturalization elsewhere. It is this principle that 



10 

the treaty of 1868 offends against, out'of undue deference to the penal 
code of Prussia, It is therefore wrong. It is an attempt to assimilate 
the relations subsisting between the free American citizen and his 
self-chosen government to those of the Prussian subject to his in- 
herited and anointed king. In this respect the treaty is essentially 
un-American, un-republican, and contrary to theprinciples that should 
guide the intercourse of our people with foreign nations. 

OUR EARLY POLICY OX IMMIGRATION. 

The importance of a national and just policy of protection to our 
citizens abroad needs no extended remark. It has been the true policy 
of the Government always from the beginning to encourage immigra- 
tion. Indeed, before we were independent States, it was a complaint 
against the British king that he discouraged immigration hither 
It was a capital grievance against King George, formulated in the 
indictment ot the great Declaration. 

After the Revolution, and when parties were forming, the hated 
alien law was a result of the crystallization. The Federal party was 
its champion ; the democratic party was its opponent. It extended 
ttie time of naturalization, and would have continued the prescrip- 
tive policy of King George, against which we contended. 

In the various questions connecting itself with the war of 1812 and 
since and down to the Koszta case, the democracy defied foreign ag- 
gression upon this subject. Our flag was held as a cover and our land 
an asylum from the persecutions and tyranny of the Old World. The 
millions who have come to us from Ireland and Germany, as well as 
from other foreign countries, bringing with them their muscle, mind 
and means, and declaring their intention to cast their lot and that of 
their children with us, made it imperative that a system should be 
instituted having for its basis the recognition of the changes and 
chances upon our earth by locomotion. Men will come and go. Wars 
and taxes will be levied. They drive from the roof -tree the children 
ot every clime. It has been fixed as a rule of democratic action that 
no backward step should be taken to lessen the name of the American 
citizen in the world, and no policy started to render less attractive 
the forces which draw the men of other lands to ours. 

RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY. 

Besides this question of proscription, which broke out in Kuovv- 
JSothing times, is now as then gradually associating itself with sec- 
tarian matters and all the bitter fruits of such policies. The message 
ot the President of the United States at the beginning of this Con- 
gress, the amendment of the present Senator from Maine, [Mr. Blainel 
now m the Judiciary Committee, and the reference in the republican 
platform as well as in the letter of acceptance of Governor Hayes, all 
point with no unmistakable index to a sinister sentiment of religions 
bigotry. It becomes liberal men to watch it needfully. It is no un- 
meaning hint that a so-called religious paper gives, when it says that 
the struggle next fall is of great and far-reaching importance, because 
the Koman Catholics will be on the one side and all the Protestants 
worthy of the name on the other. We know what it means when it 
denounces our Irish and German citizens, and thus lashes passion into 

wWhlmiS- 0f l'lifstriddeu Irish Roman Catholics aud atheistical Germans 
have beer I vu ' "'' ^ C ? m ^ a C . entur ^ 8nouer ' a stable republic wonM 
m^ch strain n^fh likely here than in Mexico ; and the question arises now, How 
much fctram can the good element in our nation bear ? 

If these intimations from the political Pharisees have anv si°-niii- 
cance they point to a coarse, emotional, vindictive campaign which 



11 

would not only attack religionists of every sect who do not agree 
with the writers, but would raise a barrier against that thorough unity 
of sections, religious, and races which is the pride, strength, and glory 
of our institutions. 

A BLOW AT IMMIGRATION. 

Even yet, when the best body and mind of Ireland has been min- 
gled with that of our own country, and when the Irishman competes 
with the German in tilling up the vast spaces which our territory al- 
lows for accession by immigration, it is no mere guess to say that a 
system of proscription, a svs'tem which would discard naturalization, 
strikes at one-half of our 45,000,000 of people who are cither by 
foreign descent or home adoption unbound with our Republic. 
But it does more, it strikes at the grand future which is in store for 
us, by which we will be enabled to fill up our immense area of land 
with useful, industrious, patriotic men. 

When our nation began its first century it had but a population of 
2.750,000. Its area has been extended from 800,000 miles to 3,603,844 
square miles. Annexation has quadrupled our area since the Revolu- 
tion. But with all our purchases of Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, 
California, and Alaska we gained fewer than 150,000 inhabitants, 
while the acquisition of Texas and Oregon merely restored to citizen- 
ship those who had emigated from the United States. In more senses 
than one, therefore, should we rely upou immigration to develop the 
vast resources, mineral, agricultural, and manufacturing, which tend 
to make a country great and prosperous. 

What a commentary, therefore, in this view is the false platform 
and narrow policy of the anti-naturalization and anti-immigration 
party. 

Since our nation began, frequent efforts have been made by parties, 
to impede naturalization and to detract from the value of citizeuship 
when acquired. 

OllSTKUCTIONS TO NATURALIZATION. 

Is it not fresh in our recollection that a recent republican Con- 
gress endeavored to administer upon the estate of its Federal prede- 
cessor by enactments which obstructed naturalization ? A bill was 
introduced from the Judiciary Committee which took away from 
State courts the power to naturalize and vested it in United States 
courts. It provided that applicants must first file an application with 
the clerk of the court which should state full particulars of birth, pa- 
rentage, residence, arrival in the country, &c, and give the names of 
two citizens who knew him personally, and after four years of sub- 
sequent continuous residence in the United States, six months of it 
in the State and thirtv days in the parish where he claims residence, 
he might be admitted * to naturalization upon proof of all the facts, 
moral character, &c, by two witnesses. 

Had this bill become a law, the naturalization of foreign-born citi- 
zens would have ceased for four years at least. Even those who had 
made their first declarations under existing laws would have to begin 
anew under this law, which was framed on purpose to obstruct nat- 
uralization in every way possible. Applicants would have had so far 
to go to get naturalised, not to mention the expense of taking wit- 
nessess with them and the delay and difficulty, that very few would 
ever have attempted it. . 

This scheme was not based upon any principle of right, justice, or 
public welfare, but solelv upon base partisan considerations. It 
aroused the indignation and excited the execratious of every man pos- 



12 

sessed of any regard fur common honesty and common decency. It 
was defeated by democratic vigilance. 

Easy, indeed, was it to permit tbe millions of African ex-slaves to 
citizenship and suffrage. Easy, indeed, to hurry them to the polls, 
however illy prepared for intelligent suffrage, even though horn in 
Canada or the West Indies; but it was another question" when the 
, Irishman or German came forward to attest his fidelity to our Gov- 
ernment and to renounce his allegiance to Queen and Kaiser. 

The bill referred to as urged upon a recent Congress was intended 
to interrupt naturalization for four years and six mouths. It was in- 
tended as a penalty on certain citizens for adhering to democracy. 
By restricting the authority to grant naturalization to the Federal 
courts, that measure denied the right to all except those who happen 
to reside in the vicinity of the places where such courts are held, 
and denies it even to a majority of those who have that advantage. 
There are in the United States nine circuit judges ; and generally one 
district judge in each State, but in some of the larger States two. 
So small a number of judges could not attend to all the cases of natu- 
ralization. Naturalizations could be granted only in term time, and the 
person must apply at least twenty days before the beginning of the 
term or session of the court. In every case evidence must be heard ; 
one or more witnesses must be brought by the applicant and examined 
by the court in relation to the facts and circumstances. And any 
person who chooses to come into the court and oppose the applica- 
tion is entitled to offer counter-testimony and produce a set of wit- 
nesses and have them examined. Each individual case may thus be 
prolonged into a trial ; and, with so small a number of courts, not a 
hundredth part of the applications could be heard and decided. 

OTHER OBSTRUCTIONS TO NATURALIZATION. 

Other obstructions were contrived by the authors of this bill. The 
distance which applicants would be compelled to go to attend the 
court, and the expenses and delay incident to the proceedings, would 
discourage the greater number. If the applicants should be numerous 
and the court full with other business the applicant might be detained 
for weeks with his witnesses; his bills growing, his wages stopped 
at home, his witnesses accumulating demands against him for their 
loss of time. He would have to take his turn like grangers at a 
grist-mill among the applicants. Under such a law naturalization 
would be so expensive, dilatory, and vexatious that few would apply 
for it; and this was the object for which this bill was concocted. 

A DEMAND FOR AMERICAN RIGHTS. 

Our contiguity to Cuba and the conflicts in that unhappy isle have 
contributed to many urgent diplomatic efforts to guard our interests 
and protect our citizens. Out of these efforts came the law of July 
27, 186d. (Kevised Statutes, page 352.) It is quoted as a sample of 
that policy which was the result of democratic success against Fed- 
eral sycophancy to foreign powers: 

Sec. 2000. All naturalized citizens of the United. States, while in foreign conn- 
tries, are entitled to and shall receive from this Government the same protection of 
persons and property which is accorded to native-born citizens. 

Sec. 2001. Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the 
United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty'by or under the authority 



13 

rf mvforrisn Eovemment, it shall be the duty of the President fpr&witih tode- 
maffi ttSfwSmamt the reasons of such imprisonment ; and •*&$£"■*» 
beWonrfol and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the Presld nt 
^aTl forth" ih demand the release of such citizen ; and if the release so demanded 
s unil sonal 1 v e™ v.d or refused, the President shall use such means, not amount- 
ni to acts of w a he mav think necessary and proper to obtain or eflectuate 
thl reteatfand klfthe facto and proceedings relative thereto shall as soon as 
practicable be communicated by the President to Congress. 

It will thus be seen that by tbis act of Congress the Executive is 
bound to "demand," not request, not beg, not sue for clemency or re- 
lief, but "demand" the liberty of the American citizen wrongfully de- 
tained abroad by foreign power. Without this " demand the polite 
phrases of diplomacy are of no avail. They are evidences of P^nhty 
and weakness, unbecoming a nation of a hundred years and utteilj 
inconsequential for practical remedy of the wrong. 

Without going further into the history of this and kindred legisla- 
tion, it may be well to make a comparison of the practice of the two 
parties in this matter. 

AM HUSH CASE— CONDON. 

I refer now to an V ish case - What is its ^story ? Who is Ed- 
ward O'M. Condon ? The history of the Condon case is the history 
of a mockery of justice. England herself has admitted that the trial 
was a farce." The Department at Washington know this fact to be 
true, and although he is an American citizen, he has been allowed to 
sink under British imprisonment. . 

" What is the history of this case? In September, 18b7 Captains 
Kellev and Desey, two Irish-American officers, were charged with be- 
ing S a Fenian conspiracy. They were arrested for favoring an inde- 
pendent, republican Ireland. While being conveyed from Manches- 
ter to the county jail at Salford they were set at liberty by those who 
sympathized with them. A policeman was killed by the accxdental 
discharge of a pistol. Irishmen at that time were arrested every- 
where in England on suspicion. Among the men seized for the res- 
cue of Kelley and Desev, was Condon, who was then visiting. friends 
in Manchester, along with four others, Allen, Larkm, Maguire and 
O'Brien. He was tried before two unscrupulous judges specially se- 
lected to convict. On the 2d of November, 1867, they were all con- 
victed and condemned to death. After convict on the members ot 
tne press memorialized the home secretary of England for the enlarge- 
ment of Maguire. There were not five separate verdicts but one ind - 
visible verdtct, which was clearly illegal. To hang anybody on such 
I verdict was murder. Maguire received his lberation, and thus the 
verdict, which was indivisible, was proclaimed a nullity. 

CONDON— A VICTIM. 

British opinion at that time demanded some one should be a victim, 
and although there were many points made it w« ttomtod tomge 
an example! True Mr. Secretary Seward interfered to save Condon 
from fhegallows, though the other three, Allen, Larkm, and O'Brien, 

W The h te^imony -taken in the case shows that Condon was convicted 
un the testimony of five among a batch of ten proven perjurers. 1 hej 
were of the most disreputabhTcharacter. It is unnecessary to go into 
he testimony in detail. The State Department neglected his case 
and American citizenship seemed to be worth nothing. The eas > con- 
cerns the dignity and honor of this country. It concerns as much 
the peSmial liberty of Condon. It is not a question of British clem- 



14 

ency, but of American national courage. Not hanged, only impris- 
oned, sinking under the effect of wounds from a cowardly mob and 
a worse police, with blood flowing from his lacerations under his man- 
acles, he remains still in British custody, a conspicuous example of 
foreign perjury, and for his imprisonment no adequate reparation 
can ever be made. Wbat a commentary on the republican platform 
at Cincinnati ! 

It is shrewdly suspected that Condon is kept imprisoned by way of 
example, and not because he is guilty of any crime against the Brit- 
ish law. The last message that we hear from him in his imprison- 
ment speaks a spirit like that of Emmett : " They may kill my body, 
but they cannot kill the aspirations of my heart or alter its love of 
country." 

Looked upon in his prison as an Irish rebel, he has every indignity 
heaped upon him. We are told that he has one consolation. It is a 
copy of Virgil's JEneid. He may solace himself with the classics and 
with other books which his friends have asked for him, but there will 
be no solace to the American people, whose soldier-citizen he was, until 
he has a full and ample justification and release. 

MOCKERY OF ENGLISH JUSTICE. 

The question may be asked, wherein consists the mockery of this 
trial ? The answer is that perjury was committed, that prejudice ex- 
isted at the time in England against all Fenians, and that the trial 
had a political aspect. And was not this trial ami its results more 
than a mockery, since this scholar, gentleman, and soldier has been 
held in durance with the lowest class of English criminals ? The 
political animus will appear when it is stated that Maguire, a British 
soldier, was released entirely, while three of his associates in a joint 
indictment were hung, and the anomalous condition of the case, ow- 
ing to the combination of all the defendants in the one indictment 
and trial, makes it clear that it was neither technically legal nor 
morally just. 

Condon was a soldier in the Federal Army. He served four years 
gallantly. After the surrender of General Lee he went to Cincinnati. 
There he remaiued until 1867. He was sent over to Ireland on business 
relative to au estate left by his father. He was iu Manchester to see 
his relatives, and most unfortunately he was there at the time of the 
rescue of Kelley and Desey and the murder of Sergeant Brett. The 
trial was as hurried as it was cruel and unfair. Little or no oppor- 
tunity was given for defense, and shortly after conviction sentence 
of death was passed. It is the old sad satiric story of the Irish felon 
before the proverbial select British jury. 

It is not denied that he was a citizen of the United States, for was 
he not duly naturalized and in every respect entitled to as much con- 
sideration under the law of 1868, and our treaty with Great Britain 
and the law of nations, as a native-born citizen ? Who dare make 
the distinction ? Ah ! had he been an American native born, or 
even a British subject and convicted in a British or United States 
court, would he have been subjected to the injustice of such a trial, 
the perjury of such a cloud of testifying frauds, and to the degra- 
dation and incarceration which he has suffered ? In such a case would 
nine gloomy years have passed over his head, silvering his hair daily 
for the grave, without some houest effort for his release by a patriotic 
administration ? In his case what a Mephistophelian sneer curls upon 
the lip of Disraeli, as he regards our prayer and imbecility before 
British power and arrogance. 



15 

AMERICAN INTEREST IN 1KISH PRISONERS. 

It is not a new thing for the American Government to take an in- 
terest in Irish prisoners. Every generous heart will recognize the 
fact that Ireland and her destiny cannot be dissociated from her warm- 
hearted sons in this country. From the time of Cromwell and his at- 
tempt to root out the Celtic-Irish with his penalties, down to the pres- 
ent time, millions of Irishmen have had their property confiscated, 
their families scattered, and their bodies killed to gratify some un- 
reasoning and bigoted vengeance on the part of her Anglo-Saxon 
enemies and rulers. But her spirit has never been conquered. It is 
impossible for a true Irishman, unless you rend his heart and paralyze 
his brain, not to love Ireland. _ 

The people of my district, Mr. Speaker, a large portion of whom 
are descended of those who emigrated thence, would find me de- 
relict in my duty did I not sympathize with their sympathy. By 
cable and steamship and by the thousands of letters and messages of 
affection, by whole clans and counties, they are interweaving the 
island of Manhattan with the island of Ireland. This sympathy is 
quicker than the sub-ocean lightning. It is the instinct of son and 
daughter for mother and father. It has been enlarged, warmed, and 
fused into a heavenly radiance. Again and again, are the wrongs of 
Ireland spoken of mbst significantly in public meetings and at the 
domestic hearth. 

The history of Irela ad is not alone the history of her religious taitn, 
but the history of political independence and civil freedom. Before 
the time of the Tudors, before the time when the King's writ ran 
beyond the pale about Dublin, down through harsh penal laws and 
ecclesiastical establishments, foreign to her best emotions about the 
seen and unseen world, through evictions, land laws, and trade ex- 
actions, she has been galled without cowardly wincing, but galled at 
times into courageous revolt. 

ENGLISH TYRANNY OVER IRELAND. 

The injustice of the English government toward Ireland blackens 
every pao-e of English history. The refinement of legal dialectics and 
obsolete statutes have been called into being to crush the Mitchels, 
Meao-hers, O'Briens, Stevenses, Mahoneys, Collinses, Rodgerses, Mc- 
Caffertys, Mullinses, Rossas, Meaueys, Burkes, McClures, O Connors, 
and the procession of scholars, soldiers, and patriots, who honor the land 
of Emmett, Grattau, and O'Connell. The ends of the earth have been 
used, oftentimes, but, thank God, often invaiii, to colonize them m penal 
servitude. Not merely Mount Joy,MillBank,andChathampnsons, but 
the far off South Sea lands under British dominion, have been used to 
break the spirit of Ireland. The scouring of penitentiary flag-stones, 
the pickingof English oakum, and the worse humiliationsbranded upon 
Irish gentlemen and scholars in the living graves of English prisons 
have wakened a sympathy which the Irish heart will never willingly 
let die. Out of this sympathy, and not out of defiaut breaches ot in- 
ternational law, have come the petitions which the American Congress 
has frequently been called upon to consider on behalf of her citizens 
immured and transported by English power. 

ACTION OF CONGRESS FOR IRISH PRISONERS. 

On the 14th of December, 1869, Mr. Speaker, I offered a resolution in 
this House relating to the treatment of American citizens then held 
in prison under English authority, condemning the harsh usage of such 
prisoners and demanding immediate intervention for their ameliora- 
tion or release. This was done at the instance of Mr. John Savage, 



10 

one of Ireland's accomplished sons. On the 2d of February, 1870, the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs reported back the resolution and asked 
for information from the State Department. At that time I addressed 
this House, and begged them to give their moral if not their legisla- 
tive sanction and emphasis to this most benevolent object. I called 
to the mind of members, the protest of Gladstone against King Bomba 
in Naples, in 1851, and how he then demanded for the sake of humanity 
that the English Parliament and all classes of English society should 
be aroused for long-suffering and imprisoned young Italy. At that 
time I alleged what has since proven to be true : that political pris- 
oners in England suffered from inadequate clothing and food and in- 
attention of doctors. They were chained to hideous criminals, some 
foul and idiotic, others beastly and base ; they were compelled to 
wear the clothing of criminals who had suffered from the most loath- 
some diseases, and, although they were men of delicate physique, were 
given tasks only fitted for muscular burglars and common convicts. 
This treatment was pursued for no other reason than that of humil- 
iating the generous spirit of the Irish prisoners. Far worse was this 
treatment than that against which Gladstone protested in Naples." 

This class of prisoners embraced American citizens by birth and 
adoption. These tortures drove the piisoners to imbecility, insanity, 
death, and yet we looked on them and their sad fate without the active 
intervention of our Government. This is another commentary on the 
Republican platform. 

The law of 1868 was then existing. I quoted it then, as now. It 
was not heeded by the republican party or its organs. It is not 
heeded now. Some mitigation was made of the condition of these 
prisoners through the efforts of our minister, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, but 
as a general rule the Irish-American was left to his fate. 

Then; sir, from all parts of the land came protests in favor of Cap- 
tain O'Connor, Colonel Richard Burke, Colonel W. G. Halpin, O'Con- 
nell, McClure, and others, as this sessiou they have come, for the hapless 
Condon. But all that could be done in their behalf, if indeed any- 
thing was done, was the sending of the silent prayer to the God of 
mercy to relieve from their horrible doom, those brave unfortunates, 
whose only crime, even as alleged by their enemies, was in loving 
their sad green isle, not wisely, but too well. 

THE INDIAN EMPRESS AND HUSH AMNESTY. 

When recently Mr. Disraeli, the premier of England, proposed to 
decorate the brow of Queen Victoria with an imperial crown, in which 
should sparkle all the jewels of her oriental satrapies, it was said that 
the occasion of such an enhancement of her realm and such a brill- 
iant accession to her crown would bo followed by an amnesty to 
Irish political prisoners. These hopes turned out to be a delusion if 
not a snare. The melancholy fact remains that nothing has been 
done to relieve these patriotic men from their dire condition. What 
a commentary, therefore, are these facts on the respective resolutions 
of the two parties upon this centennial year, regarding the protection 
of American citizens abroad? Fifteen years of republican rule and 
scarcely a note of patriotic defiance against British dictation. 

No case ever attracted such universal sympathy as that of Condon 
From every State, petitions and from almost every Legislature, reso- 
lutions came expressing desire for action for his release. 

ACTION IN CONDON'S CASE. 

I had the honor on the 9th of March, 1876, to present to this House 
a resolution based on the law hereinbefore recited. It was not a re- 



17 

quest for amnesty or clemency. It was a demand, or an inquiry for a 
demand, for instant release. That resolution .reads thus : 

Resolved, That the Committee on Foreign Affairs be requested to inquire into 
the case of Edward O'M. Condon, aliened to be a citizen of the United States, who 
has undergone for nine years penal servitude in an English prison, and what ef- 
forts, if any, have been made by the Executive Department to secure his enlarge- 
ment; aud'if no successful efforts have been made in that behalf, then that said 
committee examine and report whether or not the case comes under seetions 2000 
and 2001 of the Revised Statutes, which provide for the same protection of all nat- 
uralized citizens while in foreign countries as native-born citizens, and authorize 
the President to demand of any foreign government the reasons of such imprison- 
ment and the release of the citizen. 

It was sent to to the Committee of Foreign Affairs with other res- 
olutions on this subject. It was reported back, with some modifica- 
tions. It went to the Senate. There it was weakened and emascu- 
lated, so as to make it read : 

Resolved by the Senate and Rouse of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That the President be requested only to intercede with her 
Majesty, &c. 

Finally it passed on the 7th of July. But mark its tame words 

Whereas Edward O'M. Condon, a citizen of the United States, is now and has 
been for some time closely confined in prison under the sentence of aBritish court ; 
and whereas an earnest and profound desire, evidenced by resolutions of State Leg- 
islatures and petitions numerously signed and addressed to Congress, is enter- 
tained by a large and respectable portion of the people of the United States that he 
should be speedily released : Therefore, 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is here- 
by, requested to take such steps, as in Mb judgment, may tend to obtain the pardon 
or release of the said Edward O'M. Condon. from imprisonment. 

Thus Condon is still left to the tender mercies of republican diplo- 
macy! 

HOME RULE IN IRELAND. 

Onr sympathies beloug to Ireland, for our revolution was hers. 

Ireland, too, had her revolution ; but unsuccessful revolutions are 
called rebellions ; but did she not contend, and does she not, through 
Isaac Butts, O'Connor Power, and others, to-day contend for the prin- 
ciple of her early day when Grattan thundered and Eminett died ? 
Did she not contend, not alone in her own land, but here, and where- 
ever the sword of Erin flashed, for the banner above all battle-flags : 
representation, and no taxation without it. Concord, Monmouth, 
Saratoga, Valley Forge, Yorktown, all testify of deeds done in liberty's 
name, but deeds done for man's capacity for home-rule. Jefferson 
taught the truth, which Irishmen loved to champion, that feudality 
in form or substance was tyranny ; that absenteeism was robbery ; that 
vassalage was cowardice, and independence courage ; and that the fire 
and smoke of war are simple butchery unless beneath there is the 
pure molten white heat of patriotic devotion. Jealous of power, con- 
fiding in the people, and instinct with a love of country, he gave his 
theory and his conduct to the illustration of that heaven- imaged 
scroll of stars, moving in harmony about the central sun, the type of 
our stately cluster about the Union and its,splendid ensign. 

THE DEBT OF AMERICA TO IRELAND. 

To Ireland, America is indebted as well for her prosperity in a great 
degree as for her early settlement. After the English revolution of 
1688, when the barbarous Orange policy inaugurated by England 
drove men from their island home, a tide of emigration set in toward 
the American colonies. Irish trade and manufactures were destroyed 
and wars and penal laws drove Irishmen across the ocean. They 
filled our colonies with their emigrants. At least a million of the 
2 c 



18 

throe million who Inhabited the thirteen colonics at the beginning of 
the Revolution were Irish by birth or descent. They spread and niul- 
tiplied in our land from the Potomac to the Ohio, from the Saco to 
the Juniata. They enlivened the land with their humorous spirit, 
their cheerful industry, and their alacrious belligerency. When in- 
dependence came to be our only prospect, the first undaunted rebel 
was John Sullivan, who with his Celtic band marched upon the fort- 
ress of William and Mary, in New Hampshire, and captured it. This 
was the first blow of the Revolution. In May, 1775, the O'Briens, six 
in number, fought the first naval battle of the war, and won it. The 
names of gallant Irishmen shine like stars all through the murk of 
the Revolution. To recount them is to recount the stories of Mon- 
mouth, Saratoga. Bennington, Valley Forge. Stony Point, and York- 
town. Why, one of the charges against the Irish in England was that 
16,000 of them fought on the side of America. This was one of the 
pretexts for refusing redress to the Catholics of Ireland. A steady 
influx of immigration since has filled our confines with 14,000,000 of 
Celtic blood. The names of Barry, Montgomery, Jasper, Warren, 
Clinton, Rutledge. Wayne, and Jackson but feebly portray the gor- 
geous galaxy of Irish patriots who gave to America their fervor and 
their lighting, their bravery and their blood. 

CENTENNIAL HOPES. 

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, while we cannot but notice the growth 
of bigotry and proscription up to if not in this centennial year ; while 
we cannot refrain from observing not merely an anti-Catholic but 
an anti-Hebraic and an anti-constitutional spirit of resistance to the 
religious and political freedom of this land radiating out of the Fed- 
eral and into the State constitutions; while we know that, openly and 
in secret, narrow-minded men are banding and have banded together 
to turn back the tide of progress which has marked our country since 
our soul-liberty Constitution was born, still may we not look wdth 
hope, even if mixed with anxiety, into our future, trusting and believ- 
ing in the better aspirations of our nature which have found expression 
in our centennial oratory and poetry, as the splendid confirmation of 
our Constitution. The key-note of these aspirations may be coldly 
expressed in the motto which 1 have prefixed to this speech — thai 
naturalization is empire ! 

ASSIMILATION OF RACES IX AMERICA. 

Another thing not less reasonable may be said, that the enormous 
emigration from Europe has not so tainted our political communities 
as to call for organized bigotry or retrograde politics ; for is it not easily 
assimilated with our native stock ? Is it now a strength and not a 
peril to the Republic ! Are we compelled to stint our welcome to men 
of all lauds ? Shall we not still hail them and entreat them to share 
our liberties aud prosperities? Whom have we not welcomed to our 
soil? The Irishman, the German, the Pole, and the Hungarian, and 
all the nations of the planet. Here they meet on equal terms. The 
reflux influence of our welcome is seen most in Ireland, for on the 
last Fourth of July was not our centennial celebrated in its capital ? 
Does not our land still represent to the Irishman his ideal of freedom, 
and does not the voice of Dublin echo that of New York? Oue of our 
metropolitan orators, Dr. Storrs, held up the a j gis of our Republic, 
when he said that our policy could never insult other nations or op- 
press its citizens, and that some Captain Ingraham would always 
appear to lay his little sloop of war alongside the offending frigate 
with shotted guns and peremptory summons. And the gifted Evarts 
could not but notice the various roots and kindreds of the Old World 



19 

which had settled and transfused in their cisatlantic home into har- 
monious fellowship in the sentiments, the interests, the affections 
which develop and sustain love of country in this land. He found 
the impulse and attractions which moved the emigrants to come 
hither to he puhlic, elevated, moral, and religions, and that the 
search for civil and religious liherty had animated Puritan, Church- 
man, Presbyterian, Catholic, Quaker, Huguenot, Dutch, Waldenses, 
German, and Swede, and that these made up our colonial population. 
He further found that our experience and fortunes since then have 
done nothing to change hut everything to confirm the views which 
brought them hither. 

OUR MOSAIC. 

Mr. Speaker, it is in this mosaic, made up of all races and nations, 
in which we fiud our growth, happiness, and unity. The streams of 
thought and feeling from the Old World have made us something 
more than a congeries of British colonies or a unity of selfish States. 
Our very motto, "From many, one," indicates the cause of our great- 
ness as well as of our growth; it speaks of our varied vitality fused 
with united patriotism. 

Our centennial poet in singing of the centennial day, its stately 
dawn, the triumphant noon, and the peace of the vesper skies, could 
not omit from his lofty verse the splendors of that land which wel- 
comed cavalier, Huguenot, and Quaker, and which beckoned the chil- 
dren of the danger-girdled race of Holland to blend their thrift with 
that native to our soil. The cold processes of our imperial naturali- 
zation become eagle flights in the muse of our democratic rermblican 
laureate when he sings: 

She took what she gave to man : 
Justice, that knew no station, 

Belief as soul decreed, 
Fiee aii- for aspiration, 
Free for independent deed ! 

She takes, hut to give again, 
As the sea returns the rivers iu rain, 
And gathers the chosen of her seed 
From the hunted of every crown and creed. 
Her Germany dwells by a gentler Rhine ; 
Her Ireland sees the old sunburst shine; 
Her France pursues some dream divine ; 
Her Norway keeps his mountain pine ; 
Her Italy waits by the western brine ; 

And, broad-based under all, 
Is planted England's oaken-hearted mood, 
As rich in fortitude 
As e'er went worhlward from the island-wall ! 
Fused in her candid light, 
To one strong race all races here unite ; 
Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemen 
Forget their sword and slogan, kith and clan : 

'Twas glory once to be a Roman ; 
She makes it glory now to be a man ! 

But no one struck the harp and evoked richer strains of music at 
rhetoric than the gifted Irish orator Richard O'Gorman, of New York. 
His language cannot be paraphrased, it can only be quoted : 

From the thirteen parent colonies thirty-eight great States and Territories have 
been born. At first a broad land of forest and prairie stretched far and wide, need- 
ing only the labor of man to render it fruitful. Men came ; across the Atlantic, 
breasting its storms, sped mighty fleets, carrying hither brigades and divisions of 
the grand army of labor. On they came, in columns mightier than ever king led 
to battle, in columns millions strong, to conquer a continent, not to havoc and 
desolation, but to fertility, and wealth, and order, and happiness. 

They came from field and forest in the noble German land; from where amid 
cornfield, and vineyard, and flowers, the lordly Rhine flows proudly toward the 



20 

sea. From Ireland ; from heath-covered hill and grassy vallev ; from where the 
eian,t cliffs stand as sentinels for Europe, meet the first shock of the Atlantic and 
hurl back its surges broken and shattered in foam. From France and Switzer- 
land, from Italy and Sweden, from all the winds of heaven, they came; and as their 
ba.ttle-hne advanced, the desert fell back subdued, and in its stead sprang up corn 
and fruit, and the olive and the vine, and gardens that blossomed like the rose. 

Of triumphs like these, who can estimate the value, ? The population of three 
millions a hundred years ago has risen to forty-five millions to-day. We have great 
cities, great manufactures, great commerce, great wealth, great luxury and splendor. 
Seventy-four thousand miles of railway conquer distance, and make all our citizens 
neighbors to one another. All these things are great and good, and can be turned 
to good. But they are not all. Whatever fate may befall this Republic, whatever 
vicissitudes or disasters may be before her, this praise, at least, can never be denied 
to her. This glory she has won forever, that for one hundred years she has been 
hospitable and generous; that she gave to the stranger a welcome ; opened to him 
all the treasures of her liberty, gave him free scope for all his ability, a free career 
and fair play. 

And this it is that most endears this Republic to other nations and has made 
fast friends for her in the homes of the peoples all over the earth. Not her riches, 
not her nuggets of gold, nor her mountains of silver, not her prodigies of mechanical 
skill, great and valuable though these things be. It is this that most of all makes 
her name beloved and honored : that she has been always broad and liberal in her 
sympathies ; that she has given homes to the homeless,' land to the landless ■ that 
she has secured for the greatest number of those who have dwelt on her wide do- 
main a larger measure of liberty, and peace, and happiness, and for a greater length 
of time than has ever been enjoyed by any other people on this earth. For this 
reason the peoples all over the earth and through all time will call this Republic 
blessed. 

It is not possible, Mr. Speaker, to roll back tbe shadow on the dial - 
plate of time. The snn will not stand still at human voice. This 
immigration from the Old World, with its thousand elevating and 
assimilating qualities, will go on. No Bancroft treaties ignoring the 
rights and principles of American citizenship, no indifference of a 
republican administration to our citizens abroad and in prison, uo 
jealousy or hate of the principles of naturalization and religious lib- 
erty, which give our new Atlantis its imperial scepter, its prosperity, 
population, and glory, can stop that car of progress which it has ever 
been the privilege and fortune of the American democracy to impel and 
control. No sectarian bitterness or bigoted hate can turn away the 
people of this country from the belief in the principles of religious 
freedom fixed and eternized down in their organic laws. 

The election in November will vindicate the large-minded and lib- 
eral policy of the democracy. It will inaugurate, as in 1787, for 
America in the next hundred years, a progress rivaling if not surpass- 
ing that of the past century. God grant that this may be the result ; 
and God save the Kepublic ! 



S '1.2 



